I sat this AM...watching N-TV news here in Germany....curious news item came up.
So....mental illnesses comes up as a topic. Here in Germany....numbers are increasing dramatically for mental issues, and apparently leading to significantly longer periods of absence from work than most other illnesses.
Curiously.....the Linke Party (far-left) is talking about a mandate being necessary....by the federal government....to respond with an anti-stress regulation. Yes....another regulation of some type.
Evidence? The number of sick days due to mental illness has more than doubled in Germany since 2014. This comes from a study done by the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs to a parliamentary request from the Linke Party.
The data says....German women were absent from work for a total of 87.55 million days in 2024 due to mental and behavioral disorders.
They compared against a period...ten years ago....the figure was 43.51 million days. For men, the number of days absent due to mental illness was lower at 60.39 million in 2024. However, the increase for men was even more dramatic: in 2014, they were absent for only 26.88 million days.
My question....exactly how would you wrote some regulation for less stress? Having been at both 'ends'.....worker and manager....I can understand the stress issue to some degree. But writing some forty-page regulation and hoping it cuts/resolves stress?
The likely German 'cure'? Create some massive 'stress' agency....mandate stress-meters to be worn by employees, and mandate offices to have de-stress cats/dogs?
To be honest....if you mandated fewer office meetings (like a limit of 10 minutes a week)....mandated a 3-day weekend at least once a month....identified stress-creating managers....and gave a 90-minute lunch which had a 15-minute 'walk' built into it....probably would cut half of all stress out.
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